Living Her Life
by pperfect12347
Summary: Beca and Jesse break up just before graduating from Barden. They each go on to live their own lives. Will fate bring them back together or will they continue on separate paths? Jeca centered, other characters may pop up within the story.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own pitch perfect or any of its characters

It wasn't like she cared. I mean why would she? She'd never considered herself the type of girl who needed a boyfriend to make her get out of the bed in the morning or to fall asleep at night. She would get through this and forget about him and soon all he would be is that slightly irritating boy who made her smile a couple of times through college. He would become just another human being passing through her life on the way to LA.

Los Angeles. It seemed so far away while she sat on her dorm room bed at Barden but she knew it was where she belonged. It was the place where her dreams would come true. Yes, as cheesy as that sounds, she couldn't wait for her chance to make those dreams a reality. But she couldn't focus on that right now, she needed to get through these next days, well 4 days to be exact. Then she would be done, done with it all. Done with Barden, done with school, and done with everything that reminded her of him. Jesse. The boy who she considered her best friend until just that morning and the same boy who only two hours ago she had decided was nothing more than a phase in her college days.

**Earlier that Morning**

They were in her dorm, a single suite-style room that she had acquired with her senior status that year, and the conversation was going downhill faster than she could even comprehend. If she was being honest it had started a couple of months earlier when the air had turned to spring. They were growing apart and she could feel it. Every time they decided to study instead of go out together, or every time one of them came up with an excuse to cancel a movication date it was painfully aware to her that they were no longer the inseparable "Beca and Jesse" that everyone had become accustomed to over the three years they were together at Barden. But that morning when they were laying together in her room he was the one that acknowledged it.

"Beca what's going to happen after Graduation?" He said out of the blue.

"Well Jesse," she smirked, "The world will keep spinning. It's not like just because we're graduating in 4 days the apocalypse is gonna happen."

"Becs come on, I mean with us. We haven't exactly been talking a lot lately" he said quietly, "this is something we need to look at" It was painfully obvious to her that he wanted to have a serious talk, something she had never been good at in their relationship. Jesse was always the one to start any sort of conversation with importance between the two of them. He was the one who first asked whether they could call each other boyfriend and girlfriend, he was the one to ask if she was ready to take their relationship to the next level after a heavy session of making out in her dorm room the first day of sophomore year, the one to bring up how she had those walls built up around her and what he could do to break them down and have her trust him, and he was the first one to say I love you. These were words that she nonetheless reciprocated and meant with every fiber of her being but still, he initiated it. So when he brought up the question of "us" she knew she wasn't really that surprised, just didn't want to have to talk about it.

"What do you mean with us? We'll make it work." She stated matter of factly, hoping that he would accept that answer and end the conversation.

"How do you expect to do that?" He asked incredulously, and she sighed because this didn't look like a talk that was going to end with a few simple words exchanged.

"We're going to be on opposite sides of the country for god sakes! I can hardly see how that's something that we'll just be able to 'make work' Beca!"

It was true. Everything he said, she knew it was stuff they had to consider and discuss. But she was scared. They wouldn't be just a college couple after Barden, they would be a couple out in the real world with responsibilities and internships a country apart from each other; Jesse in New York and Beca in LA. But the thing that freaked her out the most was that once they graduated they would be expected to work towards a future. "I mean its Jesse," she thought to herslf, "every romantic movie he had ever shown her led to the guy proposing and they would begin a future together." A future was something she never intended, never thought about, never really considered with someone until Jesse. But every time she though about it she didn't see herself in that role. Her parents had shown what happens to people in the future. They get married, live with each other for a while, have a jolly good time, and then it stops. They stop loving each other and they stop living their lives the way they wanted to. Dreams go out the window and all that matters anymore is who forgot to pick up the dry cleaning and who would be the lucky one forced to stay home when Beca was little while the other got to go out with friends. She didn't want that to happen to her, she wouldn't let that happen to her.

"Why isn't 'just making it work' an option Jesse? I mean people do it all the time. They let life take them where it takes them and see what happens." She responded to Jesse.

"Oh so that's what you want to do after we graduate. Is it? Just see what happens to us? God. I thought I meant more to you than that. I thought you cared more about us than just letting life take us where it wants to. I thought I was worth a plan. I thought I was worth trying to come up with a plan to be together and have a healthy relationship instead of just video chatting when we feel like it while we're a whole god damn country apart!" He said with his tone starting to escalate.

"Come on Jesse, you know you mean more to me than that. I'm just saying that maybe we don't need to plan out every aspect of what's gonna happen."

She faltered a little bit when she got to the end of her sentence and he saw what he was afraid of, what he had worked so hard to get rid of. She still had those walls built up around her, preventing her from committing all the way to him. He thought that they had worked on that during sophomore year and that they had finally pushed past them. She had met his parents and spent a month in his home town, something freshman year Beca would have run from and never looked back. But as of right now it was apparent to him that she was still scared and it made him furious. What more did she need to see from him before she was ready to trust him completely? He was always there for her when her Dad pushed her past her breaking part or when Sheila annoyed her so much she considered strangling the woman. He was there when her mother wouldn't show up when she promised to be and he was there for her when she needed help with school or her music.

"Jesus Beca! You don't get it do you?" he shouted at her. That vein on his forehead was popping and she knew he was pissed.

"Get what? The fact that we don't work together anymore! Yes I can see that clear was day right now Jesse!" She screeched back at him.

He looked at her, his whole body frozen, not moving a finger. She knew she probably shouldn't have said it so bluntly but it was true, they weren't like they used to be.

What seemed like hours later Jesse said, "Is that what you think of us now? You think we're done don't you? That's why you didn't want to have this talk" he said this as if a lightbulb had gone off in his head, "you didn't want to have this talk because to you we were done. How long have you felt this way, huh? Did you feel that way when we were together last summer at my parents house? When I introduced you to my family were you already thinking 'hey I'll never have to see these people after next year but lets have fun while this lasts'. Or was it just last week when we were having sex in the treble house? When I told you I never could've dreamed I would get to hold something so beautiful in my arms every night. Or maybe you've been done since the minute we became us Beca. Did you never see us lasting past college? Because I sure as hell did! I was under the impression that you wanted us to last!".

She had never seen him this angry at anything in their entire relationship but she didn't even know where to start. Maybe she couldn't find something to say back because it was true. Not the part where she was always planning to be done after college, but she had never pictured a future with him, or at least one where they were happy.

"Jesse," she started, "That's not fair.."

"No Beca. You know whats not fair? Me giving everything I have to you and you still thinking Im not worth enough to continue this relationship".

Neither one of them said anything for a couple of minutes. Then Jesse got up. He went around her room collecting little things of his that had accumulated in her dorm over the year. Just stuff really, nothing of great importance to him yet in this moment gathering it all up was speaking volumes. And she just sat there on her bed with a blank expression. He kept waiting for her to tell him to stop, that he was crazy for thinking that they could be over. But she didn't and to Jesse that's what hurt the most. She wasn't fighting for him in the slightest. It was as if she didn't even care.

He looked into her eyes when he was done looking for something, anything, that could tell him to stay but there was nothing. Those beautiful blue eyes that he had trusted so much over their relationship were cold. There was no emotion just a blank stare looking back at him. She sat there on her bed and Jesse saw that walls that rivaled the Great Wall of China were surrounding her. He knew right then and there they were done and started towards the hallway.

As he got to the door frame he looked back and spoke quietly,

"I just want you to know that before when I told you that you didn't get it, I was going to say that you just didn't get that I loved you more than anything in the world and that I only wanted to work out something that wouldn't make us grow further apart than we already were. A plan that would help bring us back together and tear down those few walls that you still have up. But obviously you have different plans. We're done. Goodbye Beca".

And with that he walked out of the door and was gone. Beca sat still on her bed not believing what had just happened in the span of twenty minutes. He was gone and probably never coming back. It numbed her to her core hearing him say "We're done." And she couldn't believe those words had actually come from his mouth. But Beca realized something right then. He was no different. No different than anyone in her life that had given up and abandoned her. Jesse was no different than her father who had walked out on their family while she was only in middle school. He had become no different than her mother who had emotionally checked out the minute her father had left. The only difference is that this time she had begun to think that maybe he was different than the rest.

She was stronger than them, she told herself as she got off her bed. She went to the door, slammed it shut and began to plan the rest of her life.

A couple hours later Beca had it figured out. Jesse was nothing more than a step in her way to LA. She now knew that she could let nothing stop her from becoming who she wanted to be. Not her father, not her mother, and certainly not some boyfriend, well now ex-boyfriend. She would get through these next four days as quickly as possible, graduate, and find the quickest plane out west. There she would start to pay her dues and begin to really live her life.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Pitch Perfect or any of the Characters

Graduation Day

Beca sat there in the middle of hundreds of other seniors at Barden who were just as excited as she was to be done with college. They were all a little scared to go out into the world and start a new chapter in their lives, but it was something everyone had to do at some point and it meant that they were growing up.

She hadn't thought much of Jesse since he walked out of her dorm and judging by the fact that she hadn't received a single text or call in those few days she wasn't expecting him to come back to her anytime soon. Beca had made a point not to think about him at all after they broke up and so far had been successful. But as she sat there feeling lonely in a sea of strangers one person kept creeping into her thoughts; Jesse.

Beca tried so hard to push those thoughts away, but she couldn't do it. He kept coming back. She saw his smile in her memories, she saw his laugh as he tried to explain a movie to her. She felt him on her lips as if she had just kissed him that morning. The ceremony continued and she thought back to their drifting apart at the end of the year.

As spring came the ICCA's were over and the Bella's prevailed once again in competition with the Treble's coming in second. She thought of how sad it was that that part of her life was over, and yes Beca bad-ass Mitchell actually admitted to herself that she would miss that crazy group of girls.

Then a memory came to her and hurt just like it happened yesterday. It was at a party about a week after ICCA's at the Treble house and Bella's were there.

**Flasback**

Beca had just finished a conversation with Emily, one of the new Bellas, and was looking for Jesse. She couldn't find him anywhere and was starting to get worried. Granted she had had enough to drink that she wasn't that aware of her surroundings but still, she was getting concerned.

"Was he hurt?" she thought to herself, "or maybe he just drank too much and was passed out somewhere".

She kept looking and eventually ran into Benji.

"Hey have you seen Jesse anywhere? I've been looking for him like crazy and he's literally nowhere," she told Benji

"I think I saw him going back up to his room, he said something about going to get something and being right back"

"Okay thanks Benji!" Beca said and decided to go up to his room.

She walked up the stairs and went to go open the door that was the second on the left but it was locked.

"That's strange," She thought to herself, "Jesse almost never locks his door. He's always paranoid about not being able to get out in a fire." She chuckled to herself and internally promised that she would have to give him crap about watching too many dramatic movies again later.

"Jesse! Open up its me!" She said as she knocked on the door. She heard rustling on the other side of the door and soon a very wide eyed Jesse was staring her back in the face.

"Jeez you look like you've seen a ghost!" She laughed as she pushed passed him into the room, "Hey you know everybody's down stairs and we have some time to ourselves up here, and I don't know about you but I think its been way to long since we've had some alone time if you know what I mean," She winked channeling her inner Stacie as she said this, "What do you say we change that?"

"Becs I don't think right now's such a great time for that," He stuttered back to her

"Why the hell not righ-" she started to say as a thud came from inside his closet.

"Jesse?" She questioned, "What the fuck was that?" Her beer influenced mind was having trouble comprehending the situation but she was pretty sure she heard something from inside the closet.

"Uhmm Beca I wouldn't open that" Jesse was saying as Beca walked towards the closet.

She smirked back at him thinking it had to be one of Benji's magic tricks or something but just as she was about to open the door something, or rather someone, stumbled out.

"Who the HELL are you?" Beca shouted as a girl dressed in only a bra and underwear stood in Jesse's room. "Jesse? Care to explain this to me?!" She shouted, she could feel herself collapsing. He cheated on her. "Or if he didn't he came pretty damn close before I walked in" she reasoned. "Just when I thought I could trust him he goes and does something like this".

The girl simply muttered a few incoherent words and ran out of the room. Beca looked again back at Jesse, she was now the one who had the wide open eyes.

"Beca its not what it looks like!" He shouted, "She was just up here looking for a place to change because she spilled beer on herself!"

"Oh that makes me feel so much better!" She sarcasticly screamed back "You just had an drunk naked girl in your closet innocently looking for a change of clothes, that's bullshit Jesse and you know it!" With that she stormed out of the Treble house back to her dorm and cried herself to sleep.

**End Flashback**

After days of Beca ignoring Jesse's texts, calls, and attempted visits she had allowed him to come talk to her. After talking and arguing for hours Jesse had eventually convinced her that nothing went on between him and that girl and even had a few of the Bellas and Trebles vouch for him saying that they saw or overheard parts of Jesse's interaction with the girl.

So she forgave him and they went back to being Jesse and Beca with the event just being a sore spot in their relationship. But Beca sat there on graduation day realizing that that was when they started to drift. They were the same but somehow were growing apart after the incident.

"Stop thinking about him!" She reprimanded herself while sitting on the foldable chairs outside at Barden, "You're over him and don't need him! Just get to LA and start fresh."

So she did. She didn't think about him the rest of the day and went up to get her diploma with a genuine smile on her face because it meant that LA was only a few steps away now. Beca was even able to stare at a patch of grass in front of her the entire time all of the S's were called up on the stage and zoned out so that she didn't hear when 'Swanson' was said. And that was that, her time at Barden was over.

With the help of her dad Beca moved to LA within a week and settled into an average, small, slightly smelly apartment in the outskirts of the city. She didn't care that she had to walk down 5 flights of stairs to do laundry because of a broken elevator or that her neighbors were the loudest most annoying people on the face of the planet. It was expected. She was paying her dues and it was expected that she go through some crappy times before it got good.

Beca kept her promise from graduation to not think about Jesse and she mentally made herself ignore and forget anything that had to do with him. Soon whole weeks went by where she didn't have to tell herself to stop thinking about him. Then the weeks turned to months and eventually they became years. She was succeeding at life and becoming a successful music producer all while her time at Barden faded further and further into the back of her mind.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Pitch Perfect or any of the characters

**Six Years After Graduation**

A severely sleep deprived Beca Mitchell was wandering around her kitchen one August morning after a long night of video conference calls and problems with her latest project at work. So as you can imagine she was already irritated to be up at seven in the morning. In fact, in the words of Beca to her boss Dan the night before, nobody should have to be up at that "ass-crack of dawn" time of the day. But it got worse from there. She was out of coffee and any other imaginable form of caffeine and that meant she would have to go down the street from her work to the coffee shop and interact with the overly friendly people at Cup of Joe's coffee shop.

She sighed and went back up stairs to go put on her work clothes for the day. Her sense of style was no different than it was in college and she ended up putting on a patterned blouse, jeans and her combat boots she wore basically everywhere. However to anyone who knew her back then a slight change in wardrobe was obvious. Beca Mitchell no longer wore clothes from any cheap department store that she could find, no, her clothes now were designer. Designed specifically for her actually.

It wasn't something that she wanted to do, but as she started working her way up in the business Dan had pointed out that she might want to start to look the part if she was going to work with such high-end artists and celebrities. So, in came Courtney, a high end stylist and wardrobe specialist who had Beca's same style and was able to help her keep her dark and mysterious look yet raise the quality of it. It wasn't a total loss for Beca either because her and Courtney became pretty good friends, which Beca didn't have much of.

Beca's change in clothing wasn't the only evidence of her success either. Her house in the hills outside of LA had a gorgeous view and whenever they stepped inside people would comment on how beautiful the home itself was too. Of course it wasn't a huge mansion either because Beca would never be the type of person who measured her success by the size of her home, but it wasn't tiny either. It had a kitchen, which she barely used, a living room, two bedrooms and two bathrooms. However the house had one other room which Beca spent most of her time in and considered it to be her favorite. A music producing and mixing room.

This was the one area of her house where Beca didn't mind using money to her advantage and she turned the space into one she had always dreamed she would have. It had mixing boards and equipment lining one entire wall and a couch on another. One side displayed, some of the awards she had gotten over time, a decision that Courtney had made when they decorated the area, and the entire room had a plush carpet lining the floor. The place was soundproof too and often Beca would loose all track of time and end up spending entire nights working away at whatever project found her interest. Her boss Dan was convinced this room was the key to her success, something which Beca wasn't all too unsure of herself, and after she ended up winning two Emmy's and a Grammy Dan allowed her to do most of her work from home.

Unfortunately that day in late August Dan was making Beca come into the office to work face to face with the two artists they were acquiring and this forced her to leave her house.

She grabbed her purse and headed for Cup of Joe's where she ordered a coffee black with two extra shots of caffeine. She had a half hour before she had to be in the office so she picked a table outside and took a seat fully prepared to zone out for a while. But something caught her eye just down the street. It was a magician. But that wasn't what caught her eye, I mean street performers were no strange occurrence in LA. It was the life size storm trooper replica that stood next to him that drew in her attention.

Beca's mind immediately flashed back six years to Barden, or more specifically to Benji. She chuckled to herself thinking that the man down the street probably had Benji's dream job but then realized that her train of thought was starting to go towards another Barden boy, one she hadn't thought of in at least three years.

"No!" she told herself, "Don't even think about going there, its all in the past!"

And with that she got up and started to walk to work. So what if she was a little early? Dan might think the world is ending , but she couldn't risk thinking about Barden.

As she walked closer towards the magician she swore her eyes were playing tricks on her. The guy looked so much like Benji it was creepy, even startling. Then as she came within a few yards of the guy it hit her.

It WAS Benji.

To put it nicely she freaked out. Well maybe spazzed out was the better word. She choked on her coffee, ran into a person next to her, and clamored to the ground in front of the magician now known as Benji.

He stopped his performance and went to go help Beca.

"Hey are you alrigh-" he stopped in the middle of his sentence when he realized whose face he was looking into

"Beca? Is that you?"

"uh yeah.." she choked back "How's it going?" She said with a small smile, embarrassed about the scene she had just caused.

"Pretty good" he smiled back, "Listen I've gotta finish my show but what do you say we meet up for coffee or something later and catch up?"

She was startled. The Benji she knew at Barden would have never been so forward and normal about a run in like this.

"Yeah sure that'd be nice" she said back hesitantly. She wasn't sure whether this was a good idea. She had cut off all ties with Barden and never looked back. And now she was going to have dinner with Benji? It made her nervous.

"Ok how about I meet you at Cup of Joe's at five tonight?" he questioned as he pointed back down the street to the shop she was just at.

"Ok sounds good, see you then!" She smiled back, putting on a happy front to make sure he didn't catch on to how weird this situation seemed to her.

"Bye, see you tonight!" Benji called back as he went back to performing his show.

Beca walked down the street to work thoroughly shaken by her run-in with the magician. She didn't know what she had just gotten herself into and frankly she hadn't even considered what they would talk about.

Would he bring up Jesse? Would he yell at her and ask how come she didn't try harder to work on her relationship with his best friend? It was all flooding back to Beca. Little memories of her time at Barden seeped through the walls she had put up, now six years strong. She shook her head as she walked into her office and tried to get to work.

Work.

It was her life. Basically her only relationship in the time since college. Sure she had been on dates since then, Courtney made sure to get her out and about at least a couple times a month. But nothing was ever serious. She would go out with a guy, hook up a time or two after that then nothing. She never tried to continue it because she didn't see the point, they would all end sooner or later anyway so why even try to fool herself? She would never be the type of girl to have anything serious with a guy. It just wasn't meant for her.

Music on the other hand was something she couldn't live without. It was what got her out of bed in the morning and when she was sad or occasionally let herself feel lonely it was music that would comfort her.

She went through work that day ignoring the events of the morning, as she would do with any event that made her question what she felt towards people.

Beca had a couple meetings and workshops that were required for the new group they were working, so she worked through them concentrating on only the specifics, details that required her entire focus took up her whole day and before she knew it it was four. She was supposed to be meeting Benji in an hour.

She cleaned up her work from the day, rushed to the bathroom to make sure her makeup was alright and she didn't look like a total wreck after such a hectic day and then walked out of the office at 4:45 headed for Cup of Joe's.

Benji was already seated at a table when she showed up and he had changed out of his magic clothes into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. As Beca approached him she still couldn't believe how average he looked. His hair was cut shorter and his jeans were no longer tucked into boots that over the course of college Beca had determined was his signature Benji look.

"Hey Benji!" she waved as she sat down across from him.

"Oh hey! Glad to see you made it," he responded back to her.

They talked for a while just catching up on what the other had been up to since college. Turns out that street performing was just a hobby for Benji and he actually ran a pretty successful magic shop in the middle of the city that also sold Star Wars paraphernalia. Beca told him how she was working in music production and how the company she worked for had built up a strong clientele over the years that she'd been there. Overall, the conversation was going much better than she had expected. That is until a silence came up between them. She racked her brain for more questions she could ask him about what he'd been doing since college but nothing came. They had pretty much talked about everything. And then it happened, what she'd been dreading,

"So, have you seen Jesse at all?" He asked her with hesitation laced within his words. Benji wanted to see what her reaction to his friend's name would be, but Beca thought it was just him being curious and honestly wanting to know

"Um no. Actually I havn't," She responded quietly "I actually haven't talked to him since before graduation."

Benji heard her response but simply nodded. It was clear to him she didn't want to talk anymore about the subject and obviously Beca was just as reserved about her feelings as she was during college. "Some things never change" he told himself.

She was grateful when he changed the subject to what they were eating and soon the conversation had returned to a safe topic for her.

They said their goodbyes a little while later and promised to not stay out of touch for so long this time, and with that both were on their way back home.

Beca walked through the door to her house with a sigh, glad that this day was over and anxious to just fall asleep. Little did she know that she would have to face her past even more over the following week than she did that day.

Benji returned to his apartment above his Magic shop and wondered if he should call Jesse. The two of them were still as close as they had been the day they graduated and Benji thought he deserved to know that Beca was living in the area.

So he grabbed his cellphone and dialed the familiar number. It rang and soon enough he heard Jesse's voice on the other end,

"Hey man what's up?" Jesse said through the phone. Benji could hear that he was smiling just like he always was and for a fleeting second he wondered if he should go through with bringing Beca up because it might bring back the awful Jesse that Benji remembered from the summer after they graduated, but nevertheless he felt Jesse deserved the right to know.

"I saw her today," Benji said seriously through the phone getting straight to the point. His tone was like none Jesse had ever heard before

"I'm gonna need a little bit more than that Benji,"Jesse replied back through the phone, "Was it that girl who keeps coming into the shop just to make fun of you? Because I told you man just kick her out and ban her from coming back anymor-"

"No Jesse," Benji interrupted with his tone still serious, "I saw HER."

There was no more clarification needed. Jesse knew exactly who is friend was talking about and, to say the least, Jesse Swanson was speechless.


	4. AN

**Author's Note:**

I'm on an unexpected vacation and will update as soon as I get back on the 15th! Sorry for the wait, but I'm really glad you guys like the story!


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**A/N: Surprise! I was able to find time to update! Sorry it's so short but I will make it up with a super long update when I get back from vacation, meanwhile, enjoy the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pitch Perfect or any of the characters**

He simply hung up on Benji, and froze in shock. The thought of her brought back a flood of memories. Some great, some bad, but every single one broke him down even more.

Jesse was sitting on the floor of his apartment in downtown LA. It was a nice place due to his success in the movie industry where had received numerous awards and recognition for his scores. He considered himself lucky to wake up every day doing a job that he loved.

But there was one problem, he was doing it all alone. By this age the romantic inside him had pictured a house in the suburbs with a beautiful wife and kids running everywhere yet his apartment was empty. He didn't even have a girlfriend to start putting his plan in motion.

Somewhere along the line he had given up hope that he could ever find somebody to replace her.

Beca Mitchell.

Beca.

Becs.

His Million Dollar Baby.

Unbeknownst to anybody, Jesse hadn't gone a day without thinking of her. His approach to their breakup was polar opposite to Beca's and sometimes he wondered if he kept reliving that day six years ago in the dorm room at Barden, that maybe he'd have a chance to do it over.

Of course, Jesse knew that this was insane and every now and then when his family and friends would try to set him up with a nice girl he thought, "I'll give it my all this time, really try to make it work." But the problem was that it never did. Around the third date it would hit him that this new stranger wasn't Beca and that nobody would ever be able to replace her in his heart.

Each poor girl did nothing wrong, yet whether they were at a movie or in a restaurant they would each see a distant look in Jesse's eyes during conversation and know that the relationship would not be continuing.

So as Jesse sat there on the couch every emotion hit him all over again, and after an hour was still slouched up against the couch crying on the floor.

It was too much for him to handle knowing that she was so close to him and yet emotionally they were light years away from each other.

At that point, something inside him clicked and he got up off the floor. He was going to do something that he had promised himself, and just about every family member he had, that he would never do.

He got out his lap top from the drawer in his desk and turned it on. As the screen came to life he heard his mother saying, "It'll only make you miss her more Jesse," and then his brother words spoke, "Dude, doing that would only make you see what you missed out on." But he didn't care. He had to see what she looked like, what she was up to, he just needed to get some thread of information about her to satisfy his wondering thoughts.

So he loaded up the internet and went to work. He poured over every Facebook, twitter, and instagram page he could find; but there was nothing.

It was like she was the only human being left on the face of the planet who was not part of any social media site. So, he resorted to the lowest of lows and went straight to Google.

At this point Jesse was looking for anything, maybe her name attached to a project from some record label or a club saying she was their local DJ. Little did he know what he was about to find.

"Holy Fuck" were the exact words that came out of Jesse's mouth when the search loaded. 18 million hits. She was famous. His very own Beca Mitchell had made it into the big leagues.

There were pages and pages of articles on her talent and ability as well as the groups she had produced for. There was a link for a page that brought him to a list of awards and nominations she had been up for and, again, Jesse let out a profanity. Beca had won two Emmy's and a god damn Grammy.

He didn't even process that it was happening but he let out a smile when he realized that she had accomplished her dreams. She was producing music, and good music at that. She was living her life the way she wanted and not stuck up at some boring job.

As he was processing this, Jesse clicked on the images link on Google.

The first picture he saw took his breath away. There she was at an awards show in a pale pink floor-length gown. Her hair was pinned up in an elegant style and her eyes were shining bright. He was surprised that Beca was wearing next to no eye liner and instead had a lightly-applied smokey eye shadow look going on. It was different sure, but she was gorgeous all the same.

As his eyes scrolled down the screen another picture caught his eye. It was Beca again except this time Jesse recognized the faces around her; the Bellas. It must've been the freshman year performance because Aubrey and Chloe were still in the picture and Beca was wearing the black high-rise pants she had on when she first kissed him.

Knowing that that picture was going to be enough to have him reminiscing all night long, Jesse was just about to close his computer when one final image flashed before his eyes.

This one broke his heart.

You couldn't see any of Beca's face because the picture was taken from behind, but what was going on was crystal clear.

She was kissing someone. This wasn't some peck on the check good-bye either. It was a full on make out session. Her legs were wrapped around the mystery man and her arms snaked through his hair.

Jesse was so taken back by the image that it took him a moment to realize that there were words written on the bottom of the picture. As he squinted closer he could see the words 'New Relationship For Beca Mitchell? We Think So!' typed in a bold font, probably from some magazine. He couldn't take it anymore, and within seconds the laptop was shut, he threw himself onto his bed, and he just cried.

What was he thinking? That she wouldn't move on? That she would still be as distraught over their breakup as he was? No way. She was Beca Mitchell, the girl with all the walls and Jesse now realized that maybe that's all she would ever be to him.

**Beca's Point of View**

Beca was laying on her bed in the middle of the night the day after having dinner with Benji and she was fast asleep.

A dream ran through her subconscious:

_She was back at Barden, although somehow she knew she had already graduated. She was walking down the hall to her old dorm room and opened the door once she got there._

_"Hey Babe," Jesse greeted her with a kiss._

_"Hi Nerd," she replied back._

_"I've almost got these boxes packed up," Jesse stated, "And once we put them in the truck we can head out and catch the plane to LA."_

_Dream Beca smiled. She was so happy that everything was going even better than she could have even imagined. She then started to move over and lift a box, however, Jesse stopped her._

_"Come on Beca," He groaned, "We've had this conversation before. I don't want you lifting a finger in your condition!"_

_Dream Beca was now very confused_

_"What condition?" She questioned back_

_"You know…the one that I helped get you in.." Jesse hinted back as his eyes travelled down towards her stomach with a small smile on his face._

_Dream Beca looked down towards her abdomen with a quizzical look on her face._

_There, on her very own stomach, was a notical bump._

She woke up in a sweat still confused as to what was going on and immediately rolled over looking for Jesse to comfort her.

When he wasn't there, Beca sat up. She looked around her room and realized where she was and what year it was.

Beca groaned and flopped back on her bed. "It had felt so real," she thought to herself.

But what concerned her more was that in those 5 minutes she had been "back at Barden", she was way happier than she had even been remotely close to during her 6 years in LA.

**A/N: Don't worry I promise there will be some Beca/Jesse interaction in the next chapter! Review please! :)**


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own Pitch Perfect or the characters

Benji was getting concerned. He hadn't heard from Jesse since he got off the phone with him, and four days had passed. It wasn't like his best friend to go so long without contact, and after several unanswered voicemails and texts were sent, Benji decided to take action.

He knocked on his movie obsessed friend's door for a good five minutes before he heard a slight shuffle inside.

"Jesse! Open up! I just need to know that you're alive man! Come on I've been standing out her for hours!" he yelled through the door with some exaggeration. However, as Jesse finally turned the doorknob open, Benji wished that the guy had just stayed inside.

He looked awful.

It was clear that Jesse hadn't slept in days based off of the dark bags under his eyes, and to Benji it also looked like he hadn't bothered to shower as well.

"What do you want?" Jesse asked, "I'm not really in the mood to talk."

Immediately Benji flashed back.

**Flashback: At Barden, the day before Graduation**

Benji was begging Jesse to move or at least talk, but nothing would work. He had made countless bowls of popcorn and offered to watch any movie under the sun but still, nothing. Jesse sat on his bed with the look of a broken man on his face. The emotion in his chocolate brown eyes, however, would let anybody see that he was suffering of wounds of a broken heart and not a broken body.

To put it simply, his whole world had crashed down around him. He and Beca were over and at this point it was apparent that she wasn't even going to attempt to fix things between the two of them.

As Benji pestered away saying that he should at least try to enjoy the last few days he had in college, Jesse looked up. On his face was the most depressing expression Benji could ever recall. He stopped talking when Jesse looked him in the eye and very softly, Jesse's voice could be heard,

"She's my life Benji. She's my everything. She's my oxygen, she's my other half, she's the one I was planning on never letting go. How am I supposed to just move on?"

**End Flashback**

That day Benji saw the same look in Jesse's eyes that was there in those last few days at Barden. It was a look that screamed "I need her" but more importantly it was a look that pushed an idea into his head. Sitting quietly Benji glanced at Jesse. He was almost positive he knew what the response would be but he decided to ask anyways just to make sure,

"Hey Jesse," Benji asked cautiously, "If I could get her to come willingly, would you want to talk to her again?"

Jesse looked up from his position on the couch, clearly not expecting the question. Yet it only took him seconds to reply with a response of, "You know I would Benji, I would do anything to see her again."

And with that, Benji set his plan in motion.

"Keep yourself free for Saturday night ok?" he told Jesse, and without another word Benji was out the door.

Benji Basically sprinted all the way back to his apartment and didn't waste any time once he got there. He got onto the internet and went to the page that Beca had mentioned to him that was for the label she was currently working at. He quickly jotted down it's address and hailed a cab to go into downtown LA.

As he rode in the cab he took a moment to collect himself and work on a game plan. Benji knew that he would have to go see Beca in person otherwise she would find some way out of what was going to be an emotionally draining meeting. He told himself that he just needed to get her to agree to a dinner with Jesse and the rest would work itself out from there. He was sure of it.

Benji arrived at the label and told the receptionist that he had a meeting with Beca Mitchell and that she would be expecting them. Surprisingly, that was all he needed to say to be directed to a back office with block letters on the door stating, "Beca Mitchell: Producer".

After knocking lightly on the glass portion of the door, Beca herself appeared.

"oh, hey Benji! Was I expecting you?" She questioned, immediately worrying that she had made plans with him and completely forgotten about them.

"oh no, don't worry," he replied, "I just wanted to ask you something."

She looked at him questioningly and with a deep breath he spoke,

"I was just wondering, if maybe, you might possibly want to have dinner with Jesse this Saturday," he got out the words straight and to the point.

Beca's breath had hitched when he said Jesse's name out loud. It was definitely not something that she was expecting Benji to say when he showed up in her office only moments ago.

"Benji, I don't know about that," she started out, but Benji stopped her sentence,

"Beca you don't understand. You two never had the chance for any source of closure after what happened, happened. I honestly think it would be good for you, and I know for a fact it would be good for Jesse."

She looked at him and saw the hope in his eyes, and really, who could say no to that?

"Fine." She told him shortly "Does he know about this yet?"

"Yeah, and he said he's more than willing to go."

With a few short details exchanged about when and where Beca would be meeting Jesse on Saturday, Benji was gone.

This left Beca to wonder what would happen when they saw each other. It scared her when she realized she no longer knew Jesse and the type of person he was. For all she knew he could have become bitter with age and this whole evening could be a mistake just waiting to happen. But another part, inspired by the dream she had had almost a week ago, let her hope that maybe things would go better than she expected.

Saturday afternoon came and both Beca and Jesse were feeling the nerves set in, but in very different ways.

Jesse had a dull butterfly feeling in the pit of his stomach and was hoping that he would be able to control his emotions long enough to show her that they could still have a chance. Or maybe at the least that they could be friends. He just wanted some form of contact with the girl that at one point made his life so enjoyable.

Beca, on the other hand, was full fledged flipping out. She had resorted to calling Courtney and asking her what she should say when she first saw him. Should it be a simple 'Hi' or was 'hello' more appropriate? Did she just jump right in and ask how he's been or did she wait for him to take the first step in the conversation. Beca was very aware of the fact that this was not something she should have agreed to and normally would have flat out refused to go to. It brought up her past and all of the emotions that came along with it. She was scared.

But seven o'cock was fast approaching and she knew that if she didn't leave soon she would be late for her date. NO. "Its not a date," she told herself, "it's just some casual catching up between two college friends. Who used to date. And hadn't spoken in 6 years. Oh boy." It was certaintly going to be an interesting night.

The restaurant was a nice place and had a good atmosphere to it. The lighting was dim enough to create an evening mood, but not too dark so that you could still read the menu in front of you.

Jesse got there first, just like he normally did when they were dating in college. The hostess gave him a table in the far back corner and placed two menus down in front of him. And then he waited. In fact, Jesse was fully prepared for her to be running at least 2o minutes late. But then he saw her.

She was just walking in the door when his eyes landed her, and his breath was taken away. She was wearing a plain black dress with a deep V in the neckline. The fabric hugged her body and Jesse couldn't believe how good she looked. As the hostess began to bring her over to their table he observed her face. She had clearly changed since their time in college, but it wasn't something that Jesse would describe as aging. She had simply gotten more mature and at the same time more beautiful. Her hair fell loosely in curls down just past her shoulders and framed her face perfectly.

Beca saw him as soon as the hostess began leading her towards the back of the room. She kept her face neutral on the outside but all she could think of on the inside was "damn". Jesse looked great. His features were more defined than they had been 6 years ago and even through his shirt Beca could see that he worked out regularly. The closer she got to the table the more and more she wished that she had gone to the gym more than that one-time trial almost 4 months ago.

All thoughts were erased from each of their heads as Beca got to the table. Being the ever gentleman that he is, Jesse stood up and pulled out her chair for her. She smiled shyly and took her seat.

"Hey," she said. It was a loaded word, with six years of mystery all woven in between the simple three letters.

"Hey" He replied back somewhat awkwardly. He didn't even know where to start so he thought he'd go with something simple,

"so how've you been?"

As she heard him say the words she had just been about to let out, she smiled. Maybe this night would be all that bad.


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pitch Perfect or the Characters **

They made small talk before ordering, both being unusually peppy and cheerful in their conversation. There was no teasing or flirtatious harassment that had before characterized their relationship. However, it was clear as day to anyone else in that restaurant that Jesse was head over heels for the girl he was sitting across from.

Beca on the other and was being more reserved. He talked about his job and she smiled politely in return. She offered up facts about her music but nothing that would let him really see who she was.

Anytime she brought up her career and the work she had done he would grin like an idiot at the fact that she had accomplished her dreams. He talked looking directly into her eyes and was astounded that he forgot just how beautiful she was.

Amidst all of the facts however, Jesse could see that she was hesitant to really talk about anything important, and certainly this was not the time to bring up everything that had happened between them. In fact, it wasn't until the waitress came with their food that Jesse got a glimpse at the old Beca.

"For you ma'am," the waitress said as she placed a hamburger in front of Beca, "And for you sir," she continued as she put steak dish in front of Jesse, then walked away.

He couldn't help but chuckle at the fact the she had ordered a hamburger of all things. It was a pretty nice restaurant and this tiny woman went for a hamburger out of everything on the menu. Apparently his laugh was loud enough to be noticed by Beca because he heard from across the table,

"What's so funny?" she questioned and looked at Jesse expectantly.

"Nothing," Jesse got out, still laughing to himself, "It's just that you have an ENTIRE menu of fancy food in front of you and you pick the burger. It's so you."

Jesse trailed off towards the end of his sentence, realizing that maybe he was crossing an emotional line that Beca would find awkward.

Instead, she just smiled back at him, picked up her hamburger, and took an enormous bite from it. Then, with a mouth full of food chuckled back, "Shut up nerd."

As soon as she said it, Jesse was right back in college. She was the only one who could make a derogatory statement sound endearing, and it was just one of the many things he had missed hearing from her over the last six years.

"Classy" he joked back at her with a grin on his face.

They continued dinner and by the time dessert came Beca was growing increasingly aware of the fact that she was too comfortable talking to him. She had spent so much time trying forget him and now all of the sudden they were both talking like nothing had changed. It was dangerous.

He was just finishing up a story about some weird guy that he worked with when the check came. And as he went to go put money on the table for the bill, Beca reached out her hand,

"No Jesse, you don't have to do that. I can pay." She argued

"Oh come on Beca, there is no way that I'm going to let you pay for dinner. That goes against like every guy-code bone in my body." He joked back as he put the money on the table.

"Fine." She moped, "But next time I'm not going to let it go,".

She had said it without even really thinking about the words coming out of her mouth, but as soon as it had happened, Jesse's eyes perked up.

"Oh really?" He questioned, "So you think there's going to be a next time do you? That's pretty assuming of you Ms. Mitchell. People adore my face and I'm in pretty high demand right now. Its almost like I'm irresistible."

"I…Well..You know…I just.." stammered Beca, "I thoug-"

"Beca relax," He smiled back, "I was just joking. If you want to do this again I would be more than happy to, but if not it's completely fine"

Although the second half of that statement was entirely false when Jesse said it, he was just trying to make her comfortable.

By this time they had migrated outside to Beca's car and were both standing next to the vehicle unsure of what to do next.

"I guess that would be nice, you know, to do this again," Beca spoke quietly.

"That's what I was thinking too," Jesse agreed with a grin on his face. "How about I give you a call and we can set something up later?"

"That sounds really nice," Beca responded.

It was then that Jesse moved a little closer to her, and she could feel her heart pounding a million miles per second. Red flags were going off everywhere in her brain, but her body just stood there in a trance.

It surprised Beca when he simply wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug and held her close for a couple of seconds.

"It was really good seeing you again Beca," Jesse said as he pulled away from the embrace and started to walk away.

As he was halfway across the parking lot Beca impulsively yelled,

"Hey Jesse!"

He turned around, shocked, and responded, "Yeah?"

"Good night nerd!" She shouted

"Good night weirdo!" He shouted back.

And with that, Beca smiled to herself and got into her car.

She started the engine with a sigh and thought to herself, "What did I just get myself into?" Because as much as she hated to admit it, there was just something about that movie loving freak that she found so irresistible and to be honest, after that night, she couldn't even remember why she had spent so long trying to forget him.

Jesse drove home the happiest he'd been in a really long time. The dinner had gone well and Beca had even given him permission to call her. He was driving home on such a high because there was a glimmer of hope that he might be on the way back to winning over Beca's heart.


End file.
